Saturday, December 14, 2013

Temporary lighting is being fitted at a notorious Cambridge junction in response to safety fears.

The
Catholic Church crossroads underwent a £900,000 revamp aimed at
reducing collisions earlier this year but improved lighting is yet to
arrive.

The county council maintains the lighting is adequate, but
has agreed to install temporary lights after concerns were raised by
Cllr Colin Rosenstiel, who represents Market.

The junction had one
of the worst accident records in Cambridge prior to the upgrade, and
since then there have been two collisions which left cyclists seriously
injured.

The council said the junction design of the lighting was not thought to be a factor in either incident.

Cllr Rosenstiel said the old lighting had been taken away and was yet to be replaced.

He
said: “This is a project that has annoyed quite a lot of people because
a lot of Government cycling money has been spent on it but the benefits
for cyclists are limited. It is frustrating that the job is dragging on. Lighting is usually put up for important safety reasons and this is no different, so the lack of lighting is a worry.”

The junction has the UK’s first traffic lights which allow cyclists to move off first, but only on the Hills Road approach.

A
county council spokesman said: “The junction has undergone major
changes to make it much more safer for cyclists and pedestrians. As part
of the project changes are being made to the lighting at the junction. We
have kept the local councillor updated on this and the fact there has
been some delay due to the supplier of the lighting columns. The
junction was reviewed and the lighting in the area judged as adequate
until the new columns arrived. After listening to local concerns
we have agreed to put some temporary lighting in as an interim measure
until new the permanent columns are in place. The permanent work is
programmed to be completed before Christmas.”